Minecraft Not Coming To PS Vita

If you want to play Minecraft on the go, PlayStation Vita won't be your answer. Mojang confirmed today that they have no plans to release the indie building game for the upcoming handheld.

The news was confirmed today by Mojang's Daniel Kaplan during a webchat interview (via Eurogamer). No mention of why they decided to bypass that platform.

It was reasonable for future Vita owners to hope for a Minecraft port. After all, the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY, the first "PlayStation Certified" smartphone, received Minecraft: Pocket Edition this summer. The game did very well on that phone as well. It's the most downloaded app on the Android Market. Kaplan says it's been played by over 8,500 people on the Xperia.

The difference there, though, is that Mojang wasn't just making it for the Xperia PLAY. After a brief exclusivity period for that device, it was made available to all Android users. If Mojang made a Vita version of the game, though, they'd have to develop it for that handheld specifically. Perhaps they're not convinced that the potential audience is large enough, considering how many other platforms already have the game.

Still, Mojang might not neglect Vita forever. Kaplan says that Scrolls, their upcoming collectible card game, is "definitely coming for touch screens." That's not an outright confirmation of a Vita port but they're at least leaving the door open.